Latest news with #Hunger-FreeKidsAct
The Herald Scotland
23-07-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Michelle Obama on why she's 'not letting up' about nutrition for kids
In a Parents Magazine interview published July 22, Obama, 61, said that "we've simply got to make it easier for families to raise healthier kids. We need to make the healthy option the easy option." "We've got to make it easy for parents to afford - and cook with - fresh ingredients," Obama continued. "We've got to make it easy for kids to get some exercise during the school day. We've got to make it easy for everybody to hydrate themselves without loading up on sugar." Michelle Obama: 'Everyone would know' if she divorced Barack Obama: 'I'm not a martyr' Obama -who said that "children's health is about so much more than our kids" - told Parents that "what's available in our stores, what's on the menu in schools, whether or not our kids can play safely at the playground, it all ladders up to the wellbeing of our families and communities." "It's a challenge I've tackled from a variety of ways for more than a decade and a half. And I'm not letting up any time soon," she added. Obama got candid for the interview as Parents honors her with its Next Gen Awards, which applauds the work of 40 "changemakers" that have "made life better for kids and families this year." When did Michelle Obama start advocating for school lunch changes? Obama has advocated for healthier nutrition for children since the first term of her husband and former President Barack Obama, who took office in 2009. He signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act into law in 2010 and Michelle Obama supported the idea to improve the nutrition of school lunches and farm-to-school programs. During her husband's second term in 2014, she sparred with some congressional Republicans, who believed the school lunch nutrition issue was local versus federal. Michelle Obama discusses parenting daughters Malia and Sasha in the White House In the Parents interview, Michelle Obama, mom to Malia Ann, 27, and 24-year-old Sasha Obama, also got candid about parenting, telling the outlet that she and former President Obama, 63, "did everything we could to give our girls as normal of a life as possible" while they were growing up. "When we were at the White House, we made sure they were doing things like making their beds every morning and as they got older, getting summer jobs," she added. Michelle Obama reveals daughter Malia Obama's name change The "IMO" podcast cohost said that her daughters' lives "slowly began to inch a little closer toward normalcy," but their "extraordinary" circumstances have "forced them to learn critical skills like discipline, flexibility, and determination to go after what they really wanted." Now, Malia Ann is pursuing a film career in Hollywood and recently helmed a 2023 short film "The Heart" which she wrote and directed. The Obamas celebrated the birthday of their youngest daughter Sasha, a University of Southern California grad, last month. Contributing: David Jackson, Christine Rushton
USA Today
22-07-2025
- Health
- USA Today
Michelle Obama is still 'not letting up' about kids' nutrition
Michelle Obama isn't giving up on her yearslong goals when it comes to kids' health. Over 15 years since she first championed new nutrition standards for student lunches, the former first lady said that she's not "letting up any time soon" on pushing for healthier habits. In a Parents Magazine interview published July 22, Obama, 61, said that "we've simply got to make it easier for families to raise healthier kids. We need to make the healthy option the easy option." "We've got to make it easy for parents to afford − and cook with − fresh ingredients," Obama continued. "We've got to make it easy for kids to get some exercise during the school day. We've got to make it easy for everybody to hydrate themselves without loading up on sugar." Michelle Obama: 'Everyone would know' if she divorced Barack Obama: 'I'm not a martyr' Obama −who said that "children's health is about so much more than our kids" − told Parents that "what's available in our stores, what's on the menu in schools, whether or not our kids can play safely at the playground, it all ladders up to the wellbeing of our families and communities." "It's a challenge I've tackled from a variety of ways for more than a decade and a half. And I'm not letting up any time soon," she added. Obama got candid for the interview as Parents honors her with its Next Gen Awards, which applauds the work of 40 "changemakers" that have "made life better for kids and families this year." When did Michelle Obama start advocating for school lunch changes? Obama has advocated for healthier nutrition for children since the first term of her husband and former President Barack Obama, who took office in 2009. He signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act into law in 2010 and Michelle Obama supported the idea to improve the nutrition of school lunches and farm-to-school programs. During her husband's second term in 2014, she sparred with some congressional Republicans, who believed the school lunch nutrition issue was local versus federal. Michelle Obama discusses parenting daughters Malia and Sasha in the White House In the Parents interview, Michelle Obama, mom to Malia Ann, 27, and 24-year-old Sasha Obama, also got candid about parenting, telling the outlet that she and former President Obama, 63, "did everything we could to give our girls as normal of a life as possible" while they were growing up. "When we were at the White House, we made sure they were doing things like making their beds every morning and as they got older, getting summer jobs," she added. A post shared by Parents (@parents) Michelle Obama reveals daughter Malia Obama's name change The "IMO" podcast cohost said that her daughters' lives "slowly began to inch a little closer toward normalcy," but their "extraordinary" circumstances have "forced them to learn critical skills like discipline, flexibility, and determination to go after what they really wanted." Now, Malia Ann is pursuing a film career in Hollywood and recently helmed a 2023 short film "The Heart" which she wrote and directed. The Obamas celebrated the birthday of their youngest daughter Sasha, a University of Southern California grad, last month. Contributing: David Jackson, Christine Rushton
Chicago Tribune
10-06-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Indian Prairie School District 204 to increase breakfast and lunch prices
Students and families buying breakfast or lunch at Indian Prairie School District 204 schools can expect to see a higher price tag for meals next year, after the school board recently approved the district's request to increase prices across the board by 25 cents per meal. Previously, lunch was set at $3.30 for elementary school students, $3.40 for middle school students and $3.45 for high schoolers, per the district's website. Breakfast was priced at $2.25 for all students. The district also offers free breakfast and lunch to eligible students, and reduced rates of 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch for students who qualify. Next school year, lunch will cost $3.55 for elementary school students, $3.65 for middle school students and $3.70 for high school students paying full price for meals, according to a memo from the district's Director of Support Operations Ron Johnson to the school board that was included in Monday's meeting agenda. Breakfast next school year will cost $2.50 for those paying full price. The following school year, prices will increase by another 25 cents for lunch, while breakfast prices will remain at $2.50, per the memo. The meal price increases were approved unanimously by the district's school board at the meeting on Monday evening as part of the consent agenda. According to the district's memo, the increase is required for compliance with the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, passed by Congress in 2010. The district says that legislation requires that they ensure there are sufficient funds provided to the nonprofit school food service account to serve lunches for students who are not eligible for free or reduced price meals. Reimbursements for free and reduced price meals cannot subsidize the cost of paid lunches, the district noted. The 'true cost' of providing lunch to district students, a memo from Johnson to the board states, is actually $6.14, but the cost to break even is around $5.36 when factoring in the revenue generated by paid student meals and a la carte items as well as federal reimbursements from the United States Department of Agriculture. According to Johnson's memo, the district is currently paying its food service provider, OrganicLife, about $4.41 per lunch served and about $2.31 for breakfast.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Whole, skim, or soy? The congressional battle over milk in school lunches
In 2010, United States lawmakers passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which aimed to tackle both childhood obesity and hunger by making school meals more nutritious. Two years later, the Department of Agriculture updated its guidance for schools participating in the National School Lunch Program, or NSLP, in accordance with the law. Whereas schools could previously serve fat-free, 1 percent, 2 percent, or whole milk and be eligible for federal reimbursement, now they could only recoup meal costs if they ditched 2 percent and whole milk, which were thought to be too high in saturated fat for kids. Representative Glenn 'G.T.' Thompson has been on a mission to change that. The Republican legislator representing Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district believes the 2010 law sparked a decline in students drinking milk across the board. 'We have lost a generation of milk drinkers since whole milk was demonized and removed from schools,' he told a local agribusiness group in 2021. Between 2019 and 2023, Thompson introduced the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act — a bill that would allow schools to serve whole milk again under the NSLP — three times without success. In January of this year, he reintroduced the bill once again — and inspired a group of animal welfare, environmental, and public health organizations to push for a vegan countermeasure. This month, a bipartisan group of legislators put forward the Freedom in School Cafeterias and Lunches, or FISCAL, Act, which would expand the definition of milk under the NSLP to include plant-based options. Currently, schools participating in the NSLP can offer milk substitutions to students with a note from a parent or doctor — but the FISCAL Act is promoting a world where vegan milks are offered freely, alongside cow's milk. If students end up replacing their daily cow's milk with a plant-based alternative, this has the potential to bring down food-related greenhouse gas emissions. But you won't hear supporters of the FISCAL Act talking up the climate benefits of plant-based milk in the halls of Congress. Instead, they're focusing on the health benefits of soy, oat, and other vegan drinks for students who can't digest or simply don't want cow's milk. 'Most of this nation's children of color are lactose intolerant, and yet our school lunch program policy makes it difficult for these kids to access a nutritious fluid beverage that doesn't make them sick,' said Senator Cory Booker, a Democratic co-sponsor of the bill. This focus on student health — and the absence of any environmental talking points — reflect the eternally tricky politics around milk in U.S. schools, which have become even more complicated in President Donald Trump's second term. Milk has a relatively low carbon footprint compared to other animal proteins, like beef, pork, poultry, and cheese. But dairy production still comes with considerable climate impacts — mainly from the food grown to feed cows, as well as methane emitted via cow burps and manure. In 2020, researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that a dairy cow can release 350 pounds of methane every year through their burps — meaning, all told, dairy cows are responsible for 2.7 percent of the U.S.'s total greenhouse gases. Nondairy milks — fortified drinks like soy, almond, oat, and rice milk — have varying impacts on the environment and climate, but all of these plant-based alternatives use less land and water than cow's milk to produce, and result in fewer emissions. Under the NSLP, schools cannot be reimbursed for the cost of meals unless they offer students milk. The Center for a Humane Economy, an animal welfare and environmental group backing the FISCAL Act, calls this America's 'milk mandate.' In 2023, student Marielle Williamson sued her Los Angeles high school for not allowing her to set up an informational table about plant-based milk unless she also promoted dairy. Subsidized school lunches have been described as 'a guaranteed market' for farmers' products; this is all but acknowledged when legislators like Thompson blame school lunch for the decline of the dairy industry. Indeed, in a recent Senate agricultural committee hearing over the whole milk bill, Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, said, 'Not only do school meal programs reduce hunger and promote learning, they also support our local farmers and ranchers at a time when it's probably the very worst time I've seen in decades' for farmers. The animal welfare groups backing the FISCAL Act argue schools need more flexibility to meet the needs of students with lactose intolerance. Consumption of milk has fallen consistently since the 1970s, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. That change is thought to be the result of shifting diets, as well as perhaps a reflection of America's growing racial and ethnic diversity. It is estimated that half of American adults have difficulty digesting lactose, the protein found in milk and many other dairy products. These rates are higher in Black, Asian American, Hispanic, Native American, and Jewish communities. 'We've had so much marketing to tell us that the milk of a cow is, you know, nature's perfect food, and it clearly is not,' said Wayne Pacelle, the head of Animal Wellness Action, an advocacy group that opposes animal cruelty and supports the FISCAL Act. Pacelle acknowledged the climate impact of the dairy industry: 'It's just a truth that cows are big contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.' But he noted that arguments related to the climate are unlikely to sway the debate over school lunch beverages. 'The Republican Congress is not really so attuned to that,' he said. As a result, his group and the others pushing for the FISCAL Act aren't talking much about the environmental considerations of drinking cow's milk. This aligns with a shift happening in the broader food industry under the second Trump administration, as producers and manufacturers figure out which talking points are most appealing to leaders like Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has called for schools to start offering whole milk again. The Republicans pushing for whole milk in schools are talking up the health and economic benefits of whole milk, an argument that came into sharp relief during a Senate agricultural committee hearing in early April. Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, who drank from a tall glass of milk before addressing the committee, referenced the term 'Make America Healthy Again,' or MAHA, when making his case. The movement, popularized by RFK, Jr., taps into wellness, environmental, and food safety concerns in the general public and offers solutions based in pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. Marshall, a co-sponsor of the whole milk bill in the Senate, said MAHA is 'about whole foods, and I think we could categorize whole milk as part of' that framework. While Republicans and Democrats alike may be side-stepping the dairy industry's environmental impact and spending more time talking about student health, there is one environmental consideration that's caught the attention of advocates of both whole milk and plant-based milk. That's food waste, a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions. Forty-five percent of the milk cartons offered at breakfast in schools are thrown out annually because students don't take them. When students do grab milk at breakfast, a fourth of those cartons still wind up unopened in the trash. Krista Byler, a food service director for the Union City Area School District in northwestern Pennsylvania, spoke at the Senate agricultural committee hearing and said serving whole milk in her schools helped milk consumption go up, ultimately reducing the amount of milk wasted. 'I hated seeing such an exorbitant amount of milk wasted daily in our small district and was hearing stories of even bigger waste ratios in larger districts,' Byler said in her written testimony. A similar case has been made by Pacelle and other supporters of the FISCAL Act, who argue students will be more likely to drink — and finish — their beverage at school if they have the option to go plant-based. Recently, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids bill passed a House agriculture committee vote. If it passes a full House vote, it could then move on to the Senate. Meanwhile, the FISCAL Act is still in committee in both houses of Congress. Pacelle said the best chance the FISCAL Act has of passing is if its provisions are included as an amendment to the whole milk bill — framing it not as a rival measure, but as a complementary effort to create more choice for students. 'Moving it independently is unlikely because of the power of the dairy lobby,' said Pacelle, 'and the G.T. Thompsons of the world.' This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Whole, skim, or soy? The congressional battle over milk in school lunches on Apr 18, 2025.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Got Milk? Kansas senator pushes bill to bring back whole milk options in schools
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) is pushing for public schools to bring back whole and reduced milk options in schools across the U.S. During a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing Tuesday, Marshall can be seen drinking from a glass of whole milk before sharing remarks on the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act. USDA cuts impact Kansas City metro food banks, nonprofits The bipartisan legislation claims it looks to 'improve our students' nutrition intake and will be a critical step in improving child nutrition health outcomes.' Juice recalled in Kansas over potentially deadly food poisoning risk During the senate meeting, Marshall emphasized some of the health benefits tied to the consumption of whole milk, including the fats found in milk. 'I'm going to just talk a little bit more about healthy fats. And some of the good things about these healthy fats is [they help] with hormone production. So think about adolescents going through puberty, those types of things. So there's good fats that help with that hormone production,' Marshall said. Judge rules Platte County doesn't have to implement children's health tax In 2010, Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act that required schools' meals to include more healthy food options and changed nutritional standards for school lunches. The 2010 act specified schools were required 'to offer students a variety of fluid milk that is consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.' Deanna Rose Farmstead opens for season with baby llama, new playground Marshall also noted during the hearing a lower consumption of whole milk in children and linked the lower consumption to osteoporosis diagnosis in adults. 'Bone mass density peaks around age 28, and what we're seeing now is a generation of people reaching that age that didn't drink milk and their bone density is down to standard deviation. Maybe it's more than that,' said Marshall. Kansas City renews contract with KC Pet Project for another year In a study published by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), researchers found nearly 90% of Americans do not meet their daily dairy intake recommendations. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
